The Garage is a platform for Microsoft employees that supports and encourages a culture of experimentation, working together across organizations and technology to explore ideas and build prototypes, adding value to existing products. Equipped with state of the art and modern facilities the 8000 sq ft Garage India, has been built to support teams from across the company for their various projects. It has three dedicated lab sections – A Hub for hackathons and workshops, a Makerspace and an Advanced Makerspace with electronic Workbench, 3D Printers, Laser Cutter, PCB milling machine for creating prototypes; a Reality Room dedicated to working in the space of Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality applications and dedicated space and equipment for doing work on Deep Learning.

Some of the compelling projects that got their start in the Microsoft Garage in the recent past are:

Seeing AI: An app for visually impaired people that narrates the world around for them. This project harnesses the power of AI to describe people, text, currency, color, and objects.

SMS Organizer – An app created for the Android OS that organizes, categorizes and customizes the user’s SMS inbox, helping them focus on categories of messages that are important to them.

Favorite Lock Screen – A unique lock screen app created for the Android OS that provides users with daily HD wallpapers and news about their favorite celebrities and interests.

Kaizala – Mobile app and service designed for large group communications and work management. Kaizala makes it easy to connect and coordinate work through an organization’s entire value chain, including field employees, vendors, partners, and customers wherever they are.

Speaking at the launch, Sri. K. Taraka Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for IT, Govt. of Telangana, said, “Telangana is fast evolving as the hotbed for innovation, we are really glad that Microsoft has chosen Hyderabad as the location for The Garage in India. Along with our recently announced collaborative platform TWorks and platforms like Microsoft Garage, Hyderabad will transform into a hub for prototype development and ideation, making the city a crucial centre in India’s drive towards the industrial revolution 4.0. We hope to see some amazing design technologies and prototypes being developed in collaboration between these platforms, right here in our state.”

“The Garage enables employees to bring to life innovative ideas and solutions. The Garage program in India will be a connector to bring together people across roles, skills, and experience to lend their passion to create solutions unique to this market.” said Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited.

“Microsoft believes in enabling its employees to utilize their knowledge, capabilities and innovative acumen to build solutions for the rapidly changing technology landscape. The Microsoft Garage serves as a hub to engage our workforce, with facilities and programs optimized for hacking, ideation, and collaboration. Microsoft Garage’s engagement with the innovation ecosystems in our GDC locations, helps create the right kind of partnerships to accelerate experimentation and innovation in the local context” said Jeff Ramos, Partner Director, Microsoft Garage.

Brian Pereira is an Indian journalist based in Mumbai. He has 25 years of technology journalism experience, and he's well known in the Indian IT industry. He is the former Editor of CHIP and InformationWeek magazines in India and has written technology articles for India's leading newspapers groups such as The Times of India and Indian Express Newspapers. Brian also writes on Aviation, startups and covers topics directed at small and medium businesses.
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